from The Wound in the Water

​The work explores the theme of Mammon, the traditional symbol of the love of greed and money, by singing of our exile and the wounding of our world, of the beauty of the earth, and of the struggle of profoundly divided humanity towards a shared song. Mammon is a force that divides us, both internally - we become divided from ourselves, from our capacity for love - and communally- human beings become creatures of competition and conflict. Our relationship with ourselves, others, and the vividly living planet that is our home, slowly erodes and then collapses - and we come to live as homeless exiles in this threefold sense. This work recognizes the long journey towards the healing that we have to undergo and ends with an attempt of a shared song.

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Commissioned by the St. Olaf Festival (Olavsfestdagene) in Trondheim, Norway and premiered by Conspirare, soprano Elin Manahan Thomas, TrondheimSolistene and conductor Craig Hella Johnson on July 28, 2016.